The Big C (1) – Showtime

My family is very close.  We’re almost always together and do a lot of things with each other that other families comprised mostly of adults probably don’t do.  One of those things is watch television together.  On any given night, my 88 year-old grandfather, my 63 year-old mother and my 44 year-old sister watch various shows together.  One of those shows happens to be Showtime’s The Big C with Laura Linney and Oliver Platt.  Because of their devotion to it, I found myself watching a couple of episodes with them.  It’s dark, but funny and so well acted and written that you can’t help but watch.  It isn’t one that will make me go out of my way to watch it, but I certainly see why it is so attractive to others.

I’ve only seen two, maybe three episodes, so I’m not exactly a fan just yet.  I suppose if there was nothing else going on, I’d sit down and watch a few more.  But the idea of watching a show where the main character is dying and knows it seems a bit too dark even for my tastes.  Laura Linney and Oliver Platt, though, are so appealing in their characters that there probably will be a point where I sit down and knock them all out just to have seen them.

I mentioned my family at the beginning to remind myself to write this story down:  In one of the episodes I watched, Platt, as the slightly estranged husband of the main character played by Linney, throws his wife a surprise birthday party at their home.  During this party, the teenage son of the two and one of his friends keep walking around with hors d’oeuvres that everyone loves.  Each time the son is asked what the hors d’oeuvres are, he tells them that they’re called “bukkake” (laughing hysterically because none of the adults seem to know what bukkake is).  At a later point in the party, Linney’s character is told what bukkake actually is she banishes her son to his bedroom.  I watched this scene with the three people I listed above.  Not one of the three knew what bukkake was until one of the characters on the show defined it.  Unfortunately, my 88 year-old grandfather is hard of hearing and didn’t fully hear the explanation and asked ME, “So what is it?”.

I’m a 41 year old woman and, thanks to the practice of my family watching television together, this week I explained what bukkake is to my maternal grandfather.  That I did it without dying from humiliation is the bright spot here.  The fact that  he answered a nonchalant “Oh, sure” will probably haunt me forever.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *